Hollywood Beauty—Over 90

I’ve been thinking about this post for a long time, identifying candidates, and locating appropriate pictures. It will be the first of a series (Over 80, Over 70, etc.). I’m posting this entry first because, well, time’s a-wastin’.

Hollywood has been an important arbiter of popular conceptions of beauty for nearly a century now. Is it right? Wrong? And does beauty last? Judge for yourself.

In this post I’m including pictures of four notable Hollywood actresses, all considered beauties in their day and all in their nineties. For comparison I’ve included both a recent picture and a picture taken at the height of their fame.

Olivia De Havilland

On the left is Olivia De Havilland after receiving the Medal of the Arts in 2008. On the right she’s appearing with Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938. Olivia was born in 1916 in Tokyo, Japan and in the picture taken last year she was 91. She’s 93 now.

Joan Fontaine

As if to prove that there’s something to that genetics stuff after all, the second screen beauty in my post of Hollywood beauties who are over 90 is Joan Fontaine, Olivia De Havilland’s sister. The picture on the left was taken for a Vanity Fair article on her last year. The picture on the right is from the 1939 movie, Gunga Din. Joan was born in 1917 in Tokyo, Japan (their dad was a British patent attorney practicing in Japan at the time). She was 90 when the picture at the left was taken and she’s 91 now.

June Havoc

The picture on the left is of June Havoc and the playwright/performer Charles Busch. I’m guessing it was taken about ten years ago. I’m not completely certain when the glamor shot on the right was taken but I’m guessing that it was taken in the early to mid 1940’s. Her life as “Dainty June” received a fictionalized adaption in the musical Gypsy whose title character is her notorious sister but June Havoc was a Hollywood and Broadway star in her own right, on Broadway notably in the musical Pal Joey. She was born in 1913 and she’s 95.

Gloria Stuart

The last of my screen beauties who are over 90 and at 99 the oldest received an unexpected new lift to her career when she appeared in the blockbuster Titanic as the older Rose but she was a bona fide star in the 1930’s. She is, I believe, the last surviving founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. She was born in 1910. The picture on the left was taken four years ago at a movie premier. The picture on the right was taken more than 75 years ago.